*** Official SPEED RACER Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Bryan Beckman]

I was stoked to see the movie when the first trailer hit. I watched every subsequent trailer with increasing giddiness and anticipation. Then the negative reviews hit like a tidal wave. There are a LOT of movies I'm interested in checking out this summer, and with a limited entertainment budget I didn't want to risk spending my time and money on what looked to be a total dud.

Then I read the very positive reviews by you guys here. Very encouraging stuff.

Then today I read a brilliant (and long!) essay on the movie by Dennis Cozzalio at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, and I'm seriously stoked to see the movie again. Guess I'd better act quickly before it gets run out of theaters!

Anyway, I thought I'd link to it here for those who loved the film and are looking for some very well-written admiration of it. If nothing else, it serves as a wonderful counterpoint to many of the downright vitriolic reviews that have been written against the movie.

DAYS OF SPEED RACER at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule

 

[Nelson Au]

With all the positive reaction going here, I wonder if the word of mouth is starting to help this film out with the general audience? Hope so!

 

[teapot2001]

It only made $2 million yesterday so I don't think word of mouth will be quick enough to save this in the theaters. I had planned on seeing it last weekend, but was busy.

Matthew Fox was on Leno last night and was disappointed more people haven't seen it. But he is very proud of the movie and believes it will eventually find its audience.

~T

 

[Patrick H.]

I think DVD is where this film will ultimately get its due. People will rent this on a whim or as a time-waster for their kids, and be very surprised by its heart and entertainment value. Then hopefuly they'll run out and buy it.

It was definitely a tough film to market, though, since trailer-sized bits of it just look insane. However, they should've settled on an approach and pushed it a LOT harder. Also, whoever said this needed the '300' early-spring slot was right...I don't think it was ever going to be a blockbuster, but with less competition and more 'event' status, more people would've gone to see it upfront and positive buzz woud've gotten out much faster. Instead, Warner's stuck '10,000 BC' there...way to go.

At any rate, my apprehension now is that the same fate might befall 'Star Trek' next year.

 

[Malcolm R]

Doubtful. The Friday-to-Friday drop was 68%. Yikes!!

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Huge drop. The opening weekend gross and critical slaying the film took have killed the film's theatrical fortunes.

Like others, I think it'll find it's audience on DVD, and do OK in the long run. Fox (and everyone else) should be very proud of his (their) work, and of the film itself. Regardless of the immediate reception, the film is a very good one, and worth his time.

I'll be seeing it in IMAX this coming week. The last time I saw a film three times in theaters (and probably three times, period) was Miami Vice!

 

[Sam Favate]

I still say that 8 months from now, when tons of Blu-Ray players have made their way under Christmas trees, Speed Racer will be the disc that people put in to show off their new high-def technology.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Proof that if you can't market a film effectively, you're in big trouble. Most people have never seen Speed Racer, which means the WB marketing department had a big job on its hands right off the bat. They dropped the ball, big time. I loved Speed Racer as a kid, but after seeing the train wreck of a trailer for it, I swore I'd never see the movie. Looks like the box office fortunes (or woeful lack, thereof) have born this out.

 

[teapot2001]

It reminds me of another great family film almost 10 years ago that WB dropped the ball on with its marketing.

~T

 

[DavidPla]

Quest for Camelot

 

[Robert Crawford]

Just because it failed at the box office doesn't mean you're right in not seeing this movie because it's a train wreck of a film.



Crawdaddy

 

[TravisR]

I think the movie's opening weekend gross has kept some people away and is a big reason for its massive dropoff this weekend. All the Speed Racer stories this week were about its poor box office reception and for alot of normal people (the target audience of every big budget movie) that means 'bad movie' and they stay away. And that's not to say that the movie would have somehow made a fortune this weekend because of the small but good word of mouth but it's a big part of its dropoff this weekend.

 

[SilverWook]

Then it's the most entertaining train wreck I've ever seen!

Somebody at Warners should have thought about getting the original show running on Cartoon Network again about six months before the movie though.

 

[teapot2001]

A day and a half after having seen the movie, I still can't stop thinking about it, all the imagery I saw and the emotions I felt. I think I will say right now that this is a masterpiece. I don't think I've felt this way about a movie since The New World.

I don't understand why anyone would call this a train-wreck. This is filmmaking at its best. One of the things I keep thinking about is the first 15 minutes or so of the movie, when we see Speed racing in the present and the switching between two different past timelines. All of this is done so organically and fluidly that I don't think the switching between different timelines has been done as well since The Sweet Hereafter.

Anyway, I felt like going to see it again today, but I'm gonna wait until next weekend.

~T

 

[Shad R]

I can't wait for DVD! Lucky for me (unlucky for Wachowski Bros), as poor as it's performing in theaters this thing will most likely be on DVD by September anyway. This movie rocks!

 

[Bryan Beckman]

From an AP story on Fandango:


Translation: next week it goes to the dollar cinemas. Who knows how much longer it'll stick around in IMAX - it'll probably get offloaded the second Kung Fu Panda arrives on June 6.

As for myself, I'm catching an evening show this Wednesday before I see Indy at midnight. I can't decide which one I'm more excited for.

 

[Ray H]

I caught this yesterday and I liked it. It's entertaining and has some insanely grin-inducing moments.

 

[ThomasC]

I have to agree with David Ansen on this, though:

"Its biggest disappointment, strangely enough, is its raison d'être--the races themselves. They lack suspense. The danger of creating a videogame world, where the limitless freedom of CGI replaces the laws of physics, is that the competitions lack any real sense of risk. These flying, flipping racing cars, seemingly impervious to metal-crunching collisions, belong more to the world of Tom and Jerry or the Road Runner than they do to "The French Connection" or "Bullitt." (Even the races in Pixar's "Cars" seemed more down to earth.) "Speed Racer" is sweet and flashy and often fun, but its thrills are oddly abstract—more esthetic than visceral. It's the colors you remember, not the crashes."

Ansen Review: 'Speed Racer' Is Fun Abstraction | Newsweek David Ansen: Movies | Newsweek.com

 

[SilverWook]

Spritle and Chim Chim are usually like that in the original cartoon. They do redeem themselves sometimes though. The 1990's update of the series toned Spritle way down from the one episode I saw. Being up to mischief, and sugar addicted probably was no longer PC!

You'd think with all the gadgets on the Mach 5, they'd put a lock on the trunk!

 

[Ron68]

I think I just need to get used to them. I used to watch the original Speed Racer cartoons but it's been so long, I don't remember Spritle and Chim Chim very much from the show.